Christina

Christina needed to come home.

She had just learned that the woman who took her in and raised her for 18 years — a waitress in Fairbanks who took pity on Love’s mother, an Alutiiq woman with developmental disabilities — had cancer.  Love fondly refers to her as grandma.

“She wanted me to come home, but I felt like I couldn’t until I was off drugs,” Love recalled during an interview at AWARE, Juneau’s emergency women’s shelter, where she started her career as an advocate for people who have survived domestic violence and sexual assault…

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Bobby

I’m Bobby. I’m an Alaskan Athabascan Native, originally from the interior village of Northway. I was incarcerated for nearly five years in Alaska’s correctional system and was released in July of 2018.

Since my release, I have been actively working to reintegrate into my community of Fairbanks. I have a job as counselor/case manager at Fairbanks Native Association and I volunteer on both the Fairbanks Diversity Council and the Alaska Peer Support Advisory Board. I am also the community co-chair for the Fairbanks Reentry Coalition. Most recently, I was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Alaska Mental Health Board and Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

Most importantly, I’m a Peer Support Specialist and my strongest passion is peer support for justice-involved Alaskans…

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Marsha

Mitakuye pi. Emaciyapi ye Tasina Luta Win, Red Shawl Woman, given to me by my Lakota Hunka family, Ina Cetan, Pansy Hawk wing of Porcupine, South Dakota. My English name is Marsha Jean Thomason-Oss. I am the daughter of Beverly Jean Phoenix (Tsalagi) of Coldwater, KS and Loren Ancel Thomason (Choctaw) of Oologah, OK. I am an Idahoan, but I live in Fairbanks and work with Reentrants with the Bridge under the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living. I am a Substance Use Counselor and maintain an Idaho CADC, an Alaska CDC II and BHC II, and the NAADAC NCAC-I certification. I am a certified Forensic Peer Support Specialist Trainer and a Peer Support Specialist III. I am currently enrolled at UAF, finishing my Interdisciplinary degree in General Studies with a minor in History and Political Science.

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